802.11ac is the latest radio technology for the Wi-Fi industry, offering an increase in data rates to beyond one gigabit per second. This new specification provides greater capacity, improved RF management, and overall improved performance over the current standard of 802.11n, all of which enable enterprises to support the continuing flood of new Wi-Fi devices. With the Wi-Fi Alliance having just announced certification for 802.11ac products in June, faster Wi-Fi is now a reality in 2013.

With most devices still operating on the 802.11n standard, many enterprises are hesitant to deploy 802.11ac due to the amount of time and budget required to revamp the network, including the possible need to upgrade power infrastructure to Power over Ethernet+ (POE+). With this announcement, Aerohive shows how enterprises, even those with legacy PoE infrastructure, can incorporate 802.11ac into their network without overbuilding or over complicating their Wi-Fi deployment.

The new AP370 and AP390 products leverage Aerohive's distributed architecture, known as its Cooperative Control architecture, which provides enterprise-class Wi-Fi without requiring a controller or overlay network. This enables 802.11ac to be deployed immediately and incrementally without needing to pay for any more equipment than is required - whether that be for one or two critical areas, or across an entire campus. Enterprises no longer have to worry about the cost and complexity of upgrading controllers or their software. Aerohive's HiveOS further ensures that new and old access points can coexist in the same network.

All Aerohive access points, switches and routers are managed using HiveManager, a single platform for cloud-based or on-premise management. Configuration, security, and access policies can be centrally defined and managed, and then pushed to any Aerohive device, including the new AP370 and AP390.

The 802.11ac solution also supports high-availability configurations. Dual Ethernet ports allow the AP370 and AP390 products to be simultaneously connected to two different switches, enabling uninterrupted wireless service during infrastructure upgrades or a switch failure-crucial for today's mobile-first enterprises that cannot tolerate wireless downtime.